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Date:      Tue, 14 Apr 1998 13:17:31 -0500 (CDT)
From:      Frank Pawlak <fpawlak@execpc.com>
To:        chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Cc:        esr@thyrsus.com
Subject:   Re: Open Source Products
Message-ID:  <199804141817.NAA01851@darkstar.connect.com>
In-Reply-To: <353395B3.BF79F6FB@xylan.com>

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On 14 Apr, Wes Peters wrote:
> Wes Peters <wpeters@xylan.com>:
>> > At some time, once Linux starts getting really entrenched in a couple
>> > of highly visible businesses, somebody's going to hit a snag running
>> > a TurboLinux application on a RedHat server or some such silly bunch
>> > of rot, and they're going to tell some hare-brained "journalist"
>> > about it, and the PC rags are going to have a heyday.  "See, we told
>> > you this Linux stuff was for the birds, trust Microsoft.  Their
>> > products are perfect, and their dedicated support staff will take care
>> > of you."
>  
> Eric S. Raymond wrote:
>> It would be *very* unwise to hope for this.  For one thing, if your
>> story about BSD being preferable for highly-stressed, high-throughput
>> network servers is true, it's about as likely you'll get bit as a
>> Linux box will.  And, in any case, if you think the pinheads who
>> inhabit the trade press wouldn't rush to interpret a conspicuous Linux
>> failure as a slam on *all* open-source/Unix OSs, you're dreaming.
> 
> I don't hope for this, I live in fear of it.  I see FreeBSD as a
> somewhat higher-end product related to Linux, at least in market
> terms.  If anything disastrous happens to Linux in the commercial
> world, the chances of FreeBSD ever making significant penetration
> there are zero.  What I was trying to point out is that in some
> significant ways, Linux is even *more* fractured than the separate
> *BSD offerings.  Of course, if Red Hat continues their momentum, 
> this may not be a problem by next year.  ;^)

I would disagree with your last point.  Caldera has a pot full of money
behind them, and they are after the corporate market big time.  Brian
Sparks wrote an open letter to SCO that caldera is out to cut into
their client base.  SuSE Linux, the dominant player in Germany, has
money and big plans to be a factor in the US market.  They are very
attentive to their users needs.  They also broke RedHats monopoly on
Applix in the US.  RedHat tends to put out a lot of bleeding edge stuff
and then go into errata mode to fix it.  Not sure that corporate folks
like the experimentation.

Frank


> 

-- 


-----------------------------

"At no time is freedom of speech more precious then when a man hits his
thumb with a hammer."
	
		-- Marshall Lumsden


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